Gundam SEED Altered Destiny
by TheRedStoryteller
Summary: Shinn Asuka has been branded a traitor by Chairman Gilbert Durandul of the ZAFT Government. Learning of a horrific truth from the Chairman, Shinn is now on the run and waging a One-Man-Army War against the Chairman and to learn of what ZAFT truly has planned.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Shinn Asuka sat in his room as he looked at his hands, trembling, almost feeling the controls of his Mobile Suit, the Destiny as he struck down his mentor, Athrun Zala as he tried to run and defect. He told himself as did Rey that he did something right, but since they got back, all he felt was this empty sense of nothingness.

"Shinn?" a knock came from his door as he recognized the voice of Lunamaria Hawke, his friend, and his ally. Shinn looked up at the door and said nothing, he couldn't face Lunamaria after shooting Athrun down, her sister Meyrin was in there and was caught in the fireball.

"Shinn, please talk to me. You just blew right past all of us without saying a word, just please tell me you're okay!" Shinn blankly stared at the door before getting back up and headed toward the door, creaking it open, looking at Lunamaria with his crimson red eyes.

"I'm fine." He said meekly "I want to be left alone right now." Lunamaria looked sad and worried about him, before she could say a word he closed the door once more, leaving him alone with his thoughts, his dark thoughts and his survivors guilt. Memories of Berlin came crashing back to him, a blonde female pilot in Shinn's arms, clinging onto what little life she had left.

 _Shinn, I love you…._

Tears began to cascade down his cheeks as he silently wept, sliding down onto the floor. Minutes pass before Shinn worked up his muster to continue. The intercom in his room started to beep, Shinn got himself off the floor and went over pressing the button showing the person on screen. It was an older female in a white Zodiac Alliance Freedom Treaty (ZAFT) uniform, she looked stern and stoic as she stared back at Shinn.

"Shinn, report to my office. Chairman Durandul wants to debrief on what happened on base." The woman, Captain Talia Gladys ordered

"Yes, Captain Gladys. I'll be there shortly." Shinn said with a calm and deep breath before turning the monitor off. There was a deep sense of dread forming in the pit of Shinn's stomach, a feeling of the worst yet to come.

It was never easy, having to put down people you called your own. But then again, perhaps Athrun Zala really wasn't one of theirs to begin with. There had been too much situations and outbursts from him in previous incursions and fights with the renegade warship, The Archangel, previously flying under the flag of the Earth Alliance, then the nation of ORB, and now flying on its own as a rogue element on the battlefield, causing mass confusion leading to more casualties.

"Talia are you paying attention?" Chairman Gilbert Durandul asked from his desk, hands folded and his cool gaze looking at her.

"Yes Chairman." She said with a short nod

"A rogue element taking one of our own is never easy, but there's a possibility that Athrun Zala's treachery had infected some of our own." The Chairman spoke, fingers rapping against the table as he leaned in, relaxed.

"What are you referring to?"

"I'm talking about Shinn Asuka. While he might have been an asset earlier on in the conflict, he's developed quite the track record of disobeying orders, he let one of the Earth Alliance's EXTENDED soldiers slip through our grasp, went AWOL. We need to consider the fact that he too may be a problem." The Chairman's relaxed expression turned to one of cold and calculating.

"You're assuming that one of my pilots is a double agent?" Gladys looked absolutely bewildered at the notion "Chairman, with all due respect that is absolutely insane!"

"Is it though?" Durandul snapped, standing up from his chair moving across the office space to stand in front of Talia "Captain, we are at war, we are on the defensive here since the Alliance struck at us. They've used subterfuge, sabotage and other vile and villainous methods against us. Is it really that hard to see that there is a virus and a cancer that needs to be cleansed here?" Gladys looked shocked, with no words she could say that was coming to mind for her.

"And this debrief with Shinn?" Gladys finally mentioned

"Until we can ascertain where Shinn's loyalties are, it's best if we have him subdued and imprisoned." Durandul said briefly before taking his seat again. A sense of anger and venom started to build within the ZAFT captain as she stared at the Chairman.

"Understood." She said, sharply, trying to contain her venom against the man she called her leader.

"You're dismissed Captain." Gladys gave a salute to the Chairman before she left, heading into the elevator down. Once she was alone however, the venom and all that anger rushed out, Talia Gladys cursed and yelled out in anger, alone in the elevator.

Shinn was smoothing out his uniform as he rode the elevator up to the Chairman's office, he took the time to try and control his breathing, constantly trying to tell himself that what he was feeling was all in his mind. The elevator came to its stop and the doors were open into a lobby area that lead into Chairman Durandul's office, it was a bit more expansive and flashy for the leader of the PLANT colonies and the ZAFT military, a couple of his elite guard stood at attention at the door way, giving Shinn a look before letting him in.

"Shinn, welcome." The Chairman said with a faint smile "Can I interest you in some tea or coffee?"

"Uh no thanks." Shinn said with a brief sigh "I've come to file my report on the matter of the rogue operative."

"Your report on killing Athrun Zala and Meyrin Hawke. Correct?" the Chairman specified in his question, staring at Shinn almost as if he was looking deep into his soul. Athrun's betrayal might have hit him hard, but having Meyrin, Luna's little sister in the crossfire hit harder than the latter.

"That's…correct."

"You confirmed the kill, right?" Durandul asked, right to the point

"Sir?"

"Athrun and Meyrin, did you confirm the kill?" His question was a little more sharp

"I- Athrun's mobile suit went down in a ball of fire and exploded in the ocean, there really wasn't much to confirm. Both were killed." Shinn furrowed his eyebrows at the Chairman, the anxiety starting to build back up yet again, but the Chairman smiled faintly

"Good. Shinn, I'm going to be honest here with you. This war has taken many lives, displaced so much and destroyed a lot of what we rebuilt and achieved in the two years since the Bloody Valentine War. The Alliance has resorted to dirty tactics to try and wipe us out, they've already used commando units, spies, and other heinous things, it's starting to fester and infect our way of life. Tell me Shinn, where exactly do your loyalties lie?"

Shinn's jaw tightened up at the question, feeling his mouth go dry as the feeling of dread came back hard.

"My loyalty is to ZAFT and the PLANTs. I want to achieve Peace and get things back to the way they were." Shinn spoke with no waver in his voice.

"Is it though? You've had contacts with one of the Alliance experimental freaks, someone we've had in our captivity and you let her go against all orders." Durandul sharply retorted "Does that sound like someone who is loyal to his people? Does that sound like someone who is loyal to ZAFT?" Every ounce of Shinn's being wanted to punch Durandul right then and there.

"That freak had a _name_ , and life that was stolen from her. That _freak's_ _name_ was Stella Loussier." Shinn spoke out, his anger slowly getting the best of him.

"It doesn't matter. She's dead, but thankfully, we fished her body out of the water and are still getting what we needed from her." Durandul said with a shrug. Shinn's eyes went wide in horror as his blood began to boil, and his pulse racing. "But you Shinn, until we can figure out where your loyalties are, you are hear-by sentenced to serve out a prison sentence until further notice, until we can figure out just what you are." Durandul looked at him dead in the eyes, Shinn's fist curled into a ball and before a thought could be process, Shinn was already up and delivering a thunderous uppercut to the Chairman's jaw, his eyes sharp and focused in a berserker like rage. The door to the Chairman's office flew open and a capture team had rolled in with their weapons drawn.

"Shinn Asuka hands on your head now!" the lead had shouted, Shinn's eyes darted to the letter opener on the desk, Shinn quickly grabbed it and threw it with precision, impacting into one of the soldier's throat, the shock of it letting the man's rifle free and flung in the general direction of Shinn who grabbed it and let loose on the gun. The gun fire went on for half a minute before the Capture team was dead. Shinn looked out into the lobby and saw more coming.

 _No way out…_ Shinn looked to his right and saw the window and the water below _._ Using what was left in the gun, he fired the rest of the magazine into window and jumped out down into the dark waters below.

"Shit! All units lock down the base, shoot ZAFT pilot Shinn Asuka on sight. He's a male sixteen-year-old, black hair and red eyes. He cannot be allowed to leave this base alive!" The second commando team lead cursed as he looked out the busted-out window down below while his team helped the Chairman out.

Lunamaria had been working on the Impulse Gundam since it was handed over to her once Shinn was assigned to the Destiny, the alarms snapped her from the focus she was in however. She couldn't make out what was said from the cockpit, climbing out she got a much better understanding, and what she heard made Lunamaria's blood run cold.

"Shinn Asuka is loose and considered armed and extremely dangerous! All armed personnel shoot Shinn Asuka on sight!" the intercom blared. Lunamaria made a quick run for the door leading down off the catwalks when she saw a figure move to the Destiny from the same catwalks. Now, she wasn't sure if this was Shinn or if someone else trying to sabotage or steal a Mobile Suit. She drew out her SIG P446 and ran after the figure, aimed and raised at the figure's back center mass.

"Stop! Turn around slowly and put your hands on your head." She ordered. The figure flinched, he was sopping wet in red ZAFT pants as he slowly turned around to look her in the face. Shinn had that look in his eye, the same look he had when he was on the fields of war, he looked cold. Lunamaria began to lower her gun just as Shinn started to speak

"Luna, turn around and walk away. Don't get involved."

"Shinn, what the hell happened? Why is everyone trying to kill you?"

"If I tell you, you walk away. You forget everything. The Chairman labeled me a traitor, was going to throw me into a Prison for God knows how long after I how close I was to Athrun and since I killed him." Lunamaria looked bewildered with this story, not knowing how to process how crazy it all sounded. But Shinn didn't have time for stories to process he was already running for the Destiny again as he saw guards enter the hangar bay. Climbing in, Shinn booted up the Destiny quick and brought the weapon systems online, locking on with the Head MG Cannons, Shinn squeezed the trigger and let out a burst of Machine Gun fire, killing the soldiers that were after them. From the camera that was online Shinn could see Lunamaria running for cover away from the chaos and back to the Impulse.

 _Be safe, I'm sorry._ Some tears started to form in his eyes, Shinn wiped those away quickly before starting to get the Destiny on the move out of the hangar bay.

Talia paced about her quarters on the Minerva, stewing in her own anger, but upon hearing the alarms and the callout for Shinn's death, most if not all the questions that were on the crew of the Minerva was: Were they going to go after Shinn and kill him? The business with Athrun put a bad taste in the Captain's mouth, especially when he had one of their own, and now they're expecting them to just shut their doors to an ally who's saved their asses on more than one occasion.

 _You've changed Gil. You've really changed…_

There was a distant explosion that caught Talia's attention, looking out the window she saw the Destiny take off full force from the base. Talia looked at the form of the Destiny Gundam take off as a streak of light across the sky before it disappeared.

"Good luck Shinn." She muttered


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Throttling out of the base was a rocky ride, some of the emplaced weapons there were trying to fire and shoot Shinn down as he flew from the base. Taking a deep breath, he tried to regain some calm from the chaos, before they send interceptor Mobile Suits after him.

 _Chairman's got Stella…gotta find out where that is…and burn it down to the ground. Shit maybe this was what Athrun was getting at…_

Destiny shook as it was hit briefly with a beam shot, Shinn maneuvered the MS to get a better look at his attacker, jaw tightening up slightly, it was a Gundam: The Legend Gundam.

 _Rey…_

 _"Shinn halt!"_ Rey Za Burrel ordered as his face appeared on the incoming video in his cockpit. Rey was a friend of Shinn's since the days at the Academy, he too got reassigned to a Gundam by the Chairman. His blue eyes were piercing, but Shinn hesitated.

"Rey, the Chairman has gone crazy! You can't seriously believe that I'm a traitor!" Shinn cried

"What I know is that you attacked the Chairman, what I know was that you were involved with an Alliance Pilot and aided her escape."

"That you _helped_ me with!" Shinn countered

"I did it thinking you weren't serious, hoping that you'd get it through that thick head of yours at the insanity of the idea! Instead you let her get away and put people in the hospital. If that doesn't scream turncoat I don't know what is."

"Rey, you're my friend…we've went through the academy together."

"The Shinn I know is long gone and dead, I don't know who the hell _you_ are, you're standing in the way of the Chairman's plan for peace, that means you must be exterminated." Rey coldly and venomously sneered. His words were like a dagger through Shinn's chest, leaving him dazed and hurt. Rey's Gundam raised up his beam weapon and fired. Shinn raised up the shield with very little time to block the shot, preventing damage to the torso of Destiny before kicking his engines into gear charging at Rey, Destiny's palm beam weapon charging for a nasty strike to the Legend Gundam's camera. Rey countered, by dropping his altitude down and swinging back for another attack with a Beam saber. Anger built up within Shinn as the fighting went on, he was branded a traitor to his Government, his best friend is trying to kill him, and was now Public Enemy number 1.

"Dammit Rey!" Shinn cursed before throwing a spear kick to Rey's midsection, breaking the dance that both Legend and Destiny were stuck in.

"Face it Shinn, there's nowhere for you to go and nowhere for you to hide." Rey spoke coolly. Another Mobile Suit was pinged on Shinn's radar. It was the Impulse Gundam.

 _Luna…. no._

The Impulse flew in between the two of them causing a stop in the fighting.

"Lunamaria, what are you doing?" Rey questioned before the Impulse Gundam's head turned to look at Rey's.

"Stopping you from making a mistake!" Lunamaria countered, her weapons weren't raised at either of them but more so her hands were up, trying to shield one or the other from attacking

"There is no mistake to make here Lunamaria, I'm stopping an enemy of the state." Rey snapped

"Are you so blinded by loyalty to the Chairman that you don't see _something_ is up with this?!"

"If you're not going to get out of my way and continue to speak such treasonous things, then _die_ with your sister." Rey raised the Beam Rifle, Shinn's eyes went wide before he grabs one of his 'Flash-Edge' beam boomerangs and chucked it quick, severing the firing arm of Rey's Gundam.

"Damn you Shinn!" Rey hissed. The beam pods from Legend were let loose now as it broke off its attack to cover the retreat.

"Luna, kick it into high gear now and follow me!" Shinn ordered before breaking away, seeing more warships and boats on the horizon coming after them with ZAKU escorts. Lunamaria followed promptly after him, flying into the nearby storm, disappearing from their radar.

The duo's flight lead for a few hours before they made it to Scotland, in a forest about four hours outside of Glasgow. The adrenalin started to fade from the EX-ZAFT fugitive as he rubbed his face in his hands, cracking open the cockpit before climbing out, taking the rope down. Lunamaria was already out looking out on the water.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Shinn snapped in anger "You could have just let me go, you didn't have to get involved with me. Now ZAFT probably marked you as a criminal for helping me."

"You think that I don't know that Shinn, really? You're my friend- what the hell else was I to do in this regard? You're no criminal to me, you've done more good for the Minerva and have shown me that you're much _more_ than what _they say_." Shinn looked away from Lunamaria as she talked, everything he worked for in his military career was now gone, his name was shit. Fortunately, Glasgow was in neutral territory, sure there was traffic that came and went with in Glasgow be it ZAFT or the Earth Alliance, so it bought the two of them some time.

"They're going to be looking for us. We have to come up with a plan." Shinn changed the subject as he paced the beach front. "Our Gundams won't last long without a place to refuel and restock. The only option I can think of is hijacking a passing ship, Alliance or ZAFT, one that preferably has a Mobile Suit hangar."

"That means we'd need to get to Edenburgh then. It's the one place that has a massive port for ships to refuel and to dock." Lunamaria added "That'd be about a six-hour travel if we secure a car or vehicle."

"How's your acting skills? Maybe we can do 'Get Help'."

"What wha-?" blinked Lunamaria

"'Get Help' we come out of the woods, you're hurt, and we stop a car and see if we can't convince them to give their car up, I mean the uniforms should help to convince them as well."

"Shinn, I don't think that'll work!"

William MacGregor, age forty-five was on his way home when he saw two people stumble out of the woods, one male and one female trying to flag someone down. The male looked wounded and hurt, and the female looked haggard.

"Please, help us!" she cried out as William slowed down and got out.

"What happened to you two?" William inquired as he approached them

"Our ship was attacked, and we got thrown off, we spent the last day and a half on the water when we got here…" the girl spoke "My friend got hit with a stray bullet."

"I'm amazed he's still alive…" Will mused. He looked at the male briefly before blinking and felt a swift punch to the gut that doubled him over.

"You son of a-"William grunted before looking up to see the male standing above him

"Sorry, it's nothing personal, but we need this vehicle more than you." The male said, and last thing that William MacGregor heard before blacking out on the side of the road.

"Shinn let's go!" followed by the sound of the car door slam and the car speeding off.

Shinn sat in the passenger seat before removing his bloodied shirt leaving a white tank top underneath, taking a deep breath he relaxed a little.

"I can't believe that actually worked…" Shinn laughed a little

"Pure luck." Lunamaria countered "Did you really need to punch that guy in the gut?"

"Do you wanna trust some random stranger we just met? Sides, he looked like he was heading toward the city and we needed to go the opposite direction." Shinn then began to meander through the car looking for a map. Checking the glovebox however he found a rather large hand cannon, specifically an old style .357 Colt Python Revolver and a little red book.

"What the fuck?!" Lunamaria eyed the Python

"Still feel like I didn't need to punch that guy in the gut?" Shinn asked her. Lunamaria looked at him but didn't say nothing and went back to focus on the road ahead of them. Shinn looked back out onto the road as well as the uncomfortable silence started to fill the air.

"Shinn, I just want you to know…I don't blame you for Meyrin." An unpleasant feeling sat in Shinn's stomach now as Lunamaria began to talk. "Maybe I blame myself, maybe if I was more there with her instead of Athrun she would be here."

"Luna drop it." Shinn quickly snapped

"But-"

"As far as I know, Durandal lied to me about Athrun being a spy, same with Meyrin and basically used me as a hitman to kill the both of them from escaping." Shinn spoke, interrupting Lunamaria "If anything you should be yelling at me, trying to bite my head off. But I'm not letting him get away with that."

"What are you going to do?" she asked

"You remember that female pilot I rescued and brought to the Minerva some time ago? When she died, I brought her to a place to lay her to rest, but Durandal fished her from the water and is now doing tests on her." Spoke Shinn, as he was inspecting the Python and checking the rounds within, "Needless to say I'm gonna wreck his shit, I'm gonna burn down his world and then I'm going to kill him."

"Shinn, you're talking about _Assassination_." Lunamaria finally spoke up "Getting to the Chairman is not going to be an easy task nor an easy feat to do!"

"It's the only thing I can do, I can't run, I can't hide. Rey was right in that regard. I've ran from things for too long before, enough is enough for me. Durandal dies, Rey dies, they all die." Shinn looked at Luna who looked unsure. "I'm telling you now Luna, you shouldn't have come for me. You should have stayed." Lunamaria shook her head, choking back on some of her emotions about how incredibly messed up this entire situation is and how Shinn was now in the center of it all.

"No, I'm with you in this." She told him "Durandal is just another evil that needs to be stopped." Their goals were set now as they both agreed, Lunamaria had reservations about killing them but her reservations were tabled for another time, right now she focused on the task at hand, getting to Edinburgh to steal a ship.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Gilbert Durandal spent the better part of his day out of the public eye, his injuries healing as he sat calmly as he could at his desk, reading files and reports about Shinn Asuka's escape, pondering his next move. He could let him run for now, have another unit go after him, regain his focus on stopping the War once and for all.

 _Regain the mask…don't let your enemies see your cracks…_ Gilbert Durandal thought as he took a few deep breaths before taking a small package of syrettes he kept in his desk. His hands felt shaky and his thoughts were clouded, it had been awhile since he had taken a proper dosage. In his early days, Durandal was a geneticist working for the betterment of Mankind and Coordinators, but accidents would happen during an experiment that did some neural damage via a viral test that effected his mental and physical state. Looking at the container, he noticed he was running low.

 _I will need to travel to the PLANTs…work on the Destiny Plan…_ There was a beep at the door. Durandal gave himself a dose in the arm before taking a drink of scotch.

"Enter." He said. Rey Za Burrel entered as soon as the door opened, he eyed the room and studied where some of the action went down.

"Chairman Durandal, I wanted to apologize for my failure to bring Shinn down-" Rey began but was interrupted by a single finger held up by the Chairman as he sat. His movements became a lot more relaxed, and less shaky, taking a deep breath he turned to look at Rey, the calm demeanor returning to him as the pills took their needed effect.

"Rey, please sit. I don't blame you for what happened. Frankly, the only ones here to blame is Shinn. But from what you wrote in your After-Action report, you said that Pilot Lunamaria Hawke went AWOL with Shinn?"

"That's right sir. She tried to get in the way of the shot, I tried to shoot her down as well." Durandal saw that there was some discomfort in the idea of Lunamaria getting in the way, along side all the confusion that fell on Rey's features. Bringing Rey closer into the fold took some crafty work on his part, and the next part would have to be careful. He didn't want another person going off and AWOL.

"You honestly did what you had to do, you did what was right and you tried to shoot her down from stopping you from shooting Shinn down." Rey glanced up as the Chairman spoke, a thoughtful expression from Rey as he was thinking his next words.

"Are you okay though, Chairman? Shinn did hit you pretty hard."

"I'll be fine and okay. I was perturbed that the capture team moved slow on the grab, I would have reprimanded them, _but_ Shinn terminated them. That's a mistake I do not intend to make again."

"What do you have planned for Shinn and Lunamaria, anyways?"

"I'll send another team after them, Special Forces. But I need you as my number two, we're rotating pilots out of the Minerva after Operation Ragnarok, I need you to take the lead on the attack with our Mobile Suit teams to crush LOGOS at their Heaven's Base with the Legend Gundam. If all goes according to plan, the War should be all but won for us." Durandal explained "Then, we initiate the beginning stages of the Destiny Plan."

"What exactly is The Destiny Plan, sir?" Rey inquired, but Durandal had a smile about him as he looked at Rey.

"You will know in time."

Arriving in Edinburgh, Shinn and Lunamaria ditched the car the first opportunity they could. Luna hid the Python in her uniform coat as they walked through the city streets, her thoughts going back over everything she knew and back to Athrun's defection. At first, she was in a bit of a mindset of Athrun being a rat or a mole, but getting to know him over the year, it made her rethink somethings about him, thinking maybe she had him wrong from the get-go.

 _Then again, he could have played us all like a damn fiddle. Oh, Christ what the hell am I doing here?_ Lunamaria looked at Shinn who had a bit of a blank expression on his face as they walked towards the dock area. She worried about him, about where he was mentally right now. After just having so much shit and muck thrown at him, there was a perpetual fear in Luna now that this was going to end with Shinn getting killed. Going along with an idea and a plan like his, killing Durandal, was suicide. She didn't want to leave Shinn alone out here however, he was her partner and squadmate.

 _I must know what's truth in all of this. I'm in it now…_

"We're here." He said as he came to a stop, Shinn looked at the area from an observation post overlooking the area, but he was a bit surprised when he looked down at the docks. There was an Earth Alliance flag flying overhead on the dock grounds.

"The Alliance holds the docks? I thought this place was neutral ground!"

"I thought so too."

"What now?"

"We stick to the plan, we steal one of the ships….and maybe just find out what the hell is going on here." There was a large force in the docks. Quite a few ships were refueling and getting ready for what looked to be a Military Offensive.

"Shinn look over there. Doesn't that look like the Archangel?" Shinn looked over to where Lunamaria was pointing and there was a ship that did match the description.

"Same model type yeah, looks…modified though. Definitely Archangel-Class though." Lunamaria looked in through one of the viewing scopes down towards the dock area. There were wandering patrols of Alliance Soldiers, most armed with the standard issue Alliance Assault Rifle, the ACR Mk-25. Over to the eastern side of the complex there looked to be a makeshift prison complex.

"How do you plan on taking a ship of that size?" Lunamaria finally asked him, taking her gaze and view off the docks and back onto her fugitive ally. Shinn looked like he was about to reveal a plan but shrugged.

"I thought maybe hitting that prison area, find some people who wanna strike back against the Alliance go from there."

"You've got to be kidding me." Lunamaria dead panned

"Listen I didn't say I had a good plan." Shinn told her bluntly

"You're planning on waging a personal War with the Chairman of ZAFT, I feel like that requires a decent and _smart_ plan!" Lunamaria snapped at him. Their bit of bickering was interrupted by the sounds of footsteps, a few men approached the two of them, rather menacing looking people followed by a bald man of average build following suit with them, chomping on a cigar.

"Sorry to interrupt this spat 'ere between you two, but uh you guys took something from an associate of mine, both his car and his shit, so we'd like for the two of you to come with us." The men that flanked the bald man with the cigar had some sidearms drawn. Now while the hand cannon was tucked away, he'd be shot before he got the chance to draw, but it might give Lunamaria a chance to run.

"Alright we'll come with you, quietly. We can respect that." Lunamaria took charge and spoke out, breaking Shinn's train of thought leaving him both surprised and a little frustrated with Lunamaria.

"Smart girl!" the man with the cigar grinned before removing the cigar from his lips and chucking it off to the side, motioning to follow him. Shinn cursed his luck and his situation he was stuck in.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Both Shinn and Lunamaria had black hoods thrown over them as soon as they were out of sight of people in Edinburgh and shoved into a car, Shinn struggled a little bit as Lunamaria yelped in surprise but was promptly silenced by a pistol whip to the side of his head. About an hour later, the car stopped and the two of them were dragged out, the sounds of music, cigarettes and booze could be detected in the air, and it was a strong smell.

"Christ Seamus, take the bags off their heads. You're gonna make it seem like we're kidnapping people!" a female voice snapped at one of the men that dragged them off. The man named Seamus responded a moment later.

"Sorry ma'am." Promptly the bags were removed and in front of the two ZAFT fugitives was a woman in her mid-forties, red hair with a Shag hairstyle lighting up a cigarette before inspecting the two of them. There was a sharp look in her eye, looking of Shinn specifically.

"So, you're the one who jacked one of my people's vehicle. You know I've heard through a lot of people that ZAFT lost a couple of Red Coats, elite special forces pilots, but it must be my lucky day if I snagged a couple right now." The woman grinned, it almost resembled a shark toothed grin, looking at the two of them as if they were her next meal.

"We were gonna leave the car intact, not scuttling it." Shinn began "Look we don't want- "

"SHUT IT!" Seamus snapped about ready to raise his hand, but the woman promptly stopped that with a sharp bark of her own

"Seamus, touch him again and I will cut that hand off and feed it to the dogs!" she snarled

"Sorry Hilda…" Seamus recoiled back to place. The woman named Hilda stared daggers at her subordinate before returning the sharp gaze back to the two of them before clapping once.

"Fetch some glasses, these two must be thirsty," Hilda grinned "Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Hilda Munro, I run the underground of illicit activities here in Edinburgh, and you two, Shinn Asuka and Lunamaria Hawke should consider yourself lucky for finding your way into my care."

"Lucky?" Lunamaria questioned as Hilda poured out her a glass and handed it to her then one to Shinn.

"Oh yes, word has it you two pissed off someone very high in the ZAFT chain, a catch or kill order. So, consider yourselves lucky."

"Lucky. Luck has nothing to do with this. Why do I get the feeling you got something up your sleeve? A catch?" Shinn rolled his eyes not even accepting the drink. Hilda laughed.

"Check out the big brain on the Coordinator here!" she spoke, laughing to her subordinates "You're a smart one Asuka I'll give you that. For you two to enjoy the full benefits of my hospitality I got a little job for you." Shinn closed his eyes as he sighed in mild annoyance towards the situation, but Hilda didn't care, she just continued with her little job details to the two of them. "No doubt since Seamus found you by the observation deck, you've seen the Earth Alliance controlling the docks. There is someone down there in that occupied area I want you to free."

"Who's the person?" reluctantly, Shinn asked for more details on who was the person they were to extract out of the docks.

"My nephew, Kieran." She spoke "The Alliance has got my nephew locked up tightly there and frankly I got my sister in my ear panicking, I'm pissed because well the reason they have him locked up is a bunch of bullshit."

"Do I look like I care?" Shinn looked at her with a halfhearted shrug

"No, not really. But you do this, you've got our protection and maybe…maybe we might throw our hat into the ring of whatever you've got cooking up. Because I will tell you Shinn Asuka, I'm very curious to know how you pissed off someone high up in the PLANTs." Lunamaria looked to Shinn for a moment, and Shinn glanced to her before contemplating talking about their situation.

"Chairman Durandal. That's who I pissed off." He finally said "He has someone, someone I cared about. She died not too long ago, but she was part of the Earth Alliance's Child Soldier Program." Hilda's expression changed from a shark toothed smile, to one of study, listening in.

"I heard about the leak from the news about that Program."

"The Chairman has the body, he wanted to do tests and experiments to reverse engineer what was done to her. For what, I don't know." Shinn continued "Long story short, I want to kill him." Hilda let out a low whistle

"You're insane." Hilda chuckled "But, we hold no love to ZAFT or the Alliance here. The War screwed with everyone here, so…I think we might be able to work something out. Get Kieran first, then we'll work out the finer details."


End file.
